Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden

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🔪 Dear Debbie Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Freida McFadden Does It Again (And My Neck May Never Recover)

🚨 Trigger Warnings

  • Sexual assault (past)

  • Sexual harassment

  • Graphic violence

  • Substance dependency (alcohol)

  • Suicidal ideation

  • Disordered eating

  • Revenge themes / murder

💥 My Thoughts (Spoiler-Free… for like 2 seconds)

THE QUEEN IS BACK. 👑

I don’t even know what kind of sorcery Freida McFadden is working with at this point, but I inhaled this book at an actually concerning speed. Like… blink-and-it’s-3AM type speed.

Our FMC? An advice columnist who secretly wants to tell every woman in a bad relationship to either divorce him or… take more permanent measures 😬

And honestly?
A little unhinged.
A little relatable.
A LOT entertaining.

Freida’s magic isn’t just the twists—it’s that her books are genuinely funny. Not intellectual, subtle humor. I’m talking “did she really just say that???” humor. And when you mix that with her signature WHAT JUST HAPPENED twists, it’s game over.

⚠️ SPOILER WARNING — FULL PLOT + ENDING BELOW

(Seriously… do NOT keep reading unless you want everything spoiled.)

🧠 Overview: What Is Dear Debbie About?

Dear Debbie (2026) follows Debbie Mullen, a housewife and advice columnist whose cheerful public persona hides a deeply bitter—and dangerously clever—inner world.

She’s juggling:

  • A failing marriage 💔

  • Troubled daughters 👧👧

  • A sabotaging neighbor 🌱

  • And a growing list of people who have wronged her… 😈

And Debbie?
She doesn’t forgive.
She escalates.

🌀 Full Plot Summary (WITH ALL THE TEA ☕)

The story alternates between:

  • Debbie (our chaotic queen)

  • Cooper (her struggling husband)

  • Harley (her “friend”… lol)

🍳 Domestic Life… But Make It Unhinged

Debbie is barely holding it together:

  • She hates her daughter’s gross boyfriend (valid)

  • Her other daughter gets body-shamed off the soccer team (rage-inducing)

  • Her neighbor steals her gardening spotlight (unforgivable, apparently)

So naturally… Debbie starts sabotaging people.

Small things at first:

  • Poison-adjacent book club sandwiches 🥪

  • Destroying her neighbor’s garden 🌿

But then… it escalates. A lot.

💼 Everything Falls Apart

  • Debbie loses her advice column job after a reader follows her advice and chaos ensues

  • Cooper loses his job too

  • Both of them lie about it (marriage goals!!!)

Meanwhile:

  • Cooper is secretly battling alcohol dependency

  • Harley is secretly sleeping with someone she thinks is Cooper (🚨)

🌸 Debbie’s Secret Life

Plot twist: Debbie is growing opium and pharmaceutical plants in her garden.

She:

  • Drugs her husband

  • Breaks into houses

  • Blackmails people

  • Exposes a boss’s affair

  • Frames others for crimes

Casual stuff.

😡 The Revenge Arc Hits HARD

Things get DARK when Debbie’s daughter is threatened with revenge porn.

This triggers Debbie’s own past trauma:

  • She was raped in college by a man named Hutch

So what does she do?

She tracks down the boyfriend, drugs him, destroys the photos, and he later crashes his car.
Debbie: “Problem solved.”
Everyone else: “…???”

🔍 The Truth Starts Unraveling

Cooper investigates and discovers:

  • Debbie was at his boss’s house the night he disappeared

  • The boss is now dead 💀

  • Cooper’s gun is missing

Meanwhile, the daughters are like:
“Is mom… a criminal?”
(Yes. Yes she is.)

🤯 THE BIG TWIST (ACTUAL WHIPLASH)

READY???

The man Harley thinks she’s having an affair with (Cooper)…
IS NOT COOPER.

He is:

  • Jesse Hutchinson

  • Cooper’s coworker

  • AND… Hutch, Debbie’s rapist from college 😳

Debbie recognized him from day one!

So what did she do?

  • Stole his gun

  • Killed Cooper’s boss (Ken Bryant)

  • Framed Jesse/Hutch for it

  • Shot Harley

  • Tried to stage a suicide when Cooper walked in

ABSOLUTE CHAOS.

🧩 Final Confessions

Debbie finally tells Cooper everything:

  • About her assault

  • About the murders

  • About literally everything

Cooper admits:

  • His alcoholism

  • His lies

And somehow…
THEY DECIDE TO STAY TOGETHER.

Couples therapy era unlocked 💀

🪦 The Ending (OH SHE WASN’T DONE)

One year later:

  • Cooper has his own firm

  • Debbie launches a successful app

  • They’re in therapy

BUT…

Debbie’s final secret:

  • The man she killed (Ken) was connected to a woman she helped through her advice column

  • When Ken's wife took Debbie's advice and filed for divorce, Ken sued Debbie's publisher

  • She killed him on purpose for getting her fired and to help Ken's wife Cindy

AND Jesse (her rapist)?
He’s killed in prison by other inmates.

🎯 Final Thoughts

This might honestly be one of my favorite Freida books. I didn’t see ANY of those twists coming—and I say that as someone who actively tries to guess them.

The pacing? Lightning fast ⚡
The humor? Unhinged and perfect 😂
The twists? Neck-snapping levels of insane 💀

I finished the last chapters like:
“Wait—WHAT—WAIT—NO—WHAT???”

I need a massage. And maybe therapy. And definitely her next book.

📚 If You Loved This, Try These:

  • The Housemaid by Freida McFadden

  • Never Lie by Freida McFadden

  • The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose

  • The Coworker by Freida McFadden

  • Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris

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